Penton, Bourne named MCCA XXXVII king, queen

Published 3:00 am Wednesday, January 4, 2017

 

On Saturday, per MCCA tradition, the king and queen were named for Mardi Gras.

Chris Penton and Suzi Kennedy Bourne are the king and queen for MCCA XXXVII.

Bourne is a member of the Ladies of Aphrodite and Penton is a member of MCCA’s Den of Jesters. Both are local business people. Penton owns the Mill Town Flea Market and Bourne, along with her husband, Rammie Bourne, owns Bourne’s Restaurant in Sheridan.

The Bournes are parents to three children, Brooke Pierce, Jordan Pierce and Eric Bourne. They also have one grandson, Myles Wheat.

Penton is a Washington Parish native and the father to Zander Penton.

On Monday, Penton said he was thrilled to be picked.

“It’s an honor to be the king,” he said. “It’s a big honor. And I am really just excited.”

Bourne said she was surprised to be picked.

“I was caught completely off guard; it was out of the blue,” she said. “I had no idea it was happening. And I was more surprised than anybody.”

Bourne said she has been in MCCA for a decade and she had never really thought about becoming queen.

“I really didn’t think about it a whole lot,” she said. “My husband kind of mentioned it in a joking way a couple of different times.”

Together, the king and queen are the public faces of the Mardi Gras season and they will visit schools, retirement homes and other community centers and visit with residents. Penton said he has not yet had a chance to think about what he hopes to bring to this year’s Mardi Gras season.

“I haven’t been able to give it a whole lot of thought,” he said. “But I look forward to having a good year and bringing back some things for our parish and the city.”

In particular, Penton said he hopes much of the Mardi Gras supplies will be purchased locally.

“Some things can’t be helped, but I’m a local business person and the queen’s a local business person, and so we want to keep as much money in the parish as we can,” he said.

Bourne said she wants everyone just to have a great time this Mardi Gras.

“We want to keep the magic of the whole ambiance,” she said. “We want everyone to have fun and be relaxed.”

Finally, she said she wanted to thank everyone involved in the decision to pick her.

“I need to thank MCCA for the opportunity, and I just want to be a queen who makes them proud. And I want to thank my king for picking me and I want to make him proud, too,” she said.

The theme this year is “City Lights,” and the parade will be Saturday, Feb. 25, at 1 p.m.